Stone Circle
by Totonyo
Summary: Ichigo narrowly escapes from a jail sentence with the help of a former mentor in a quincy-made blue dress. It gets crazier from then on. Ichigo/Rukia  implied


**Title: Stone Circle  
>Rating: PG<br>Summary: Post-Winter War Ichigo suffers from heroic BSOD and is rescued by former mentor in a quincy-made blue dress.  
>Warnings: Dead Isshin, platonic IchigoRukia and bad language.  
>Genre: Uh, drama.<br>Characters: Ichigo, Rukia.  
>Pairing: None (IchigoRukia, if anything, but no explicitly romantic exchanges)  
><strong>A/N: I was having a discussion with a friend over what Ichigo would do once he killed Aizen and saved the world. This is the unfortunate result.

It had seemed like an ordinary night.

Ichigo apparently looked dangerous and arrogant enough to draw the attention of some of the drunk bullies in the corner of the bar, who misguidedly decided to stroll over looking for trouble. He ignored their witty comments on the bright color of his hair and the obvious scar under his right eye until one of them poked him in the shoulder, demanding his attention, and he was forced to stand up.

A few moments later he sat back down, careful not to step on anyone's head.

When the bartender refused to pour him another shot, he glared menacingly until the old man bowed in apology, wondering whether this orange-haired, punk-looking kid couldn't be some kind of gangster with enough money and power to shut down his business with a flick of his fingers.

Though the police came shortly after the sixth or seventh bottle, he might still have successfully bribed the lone officer if he hadn't been in such a heated mood. It'd seemed, for some reason, much more appealing to him to knock the guy out with a single, sharp blow to the neck, and become a fugitive for the rest of his life.

Someone stormed into the bar just as he was taking his first step towards the cop, someone Ichigo immediately recognized. A woman in a flashy blue dress and a small quincy cross over the right breast, at whom he stared, wide-eyed and wondering if large amounts of alcohol could make you hallucinate people you never thought you'd see again.

She - or the incredibly realistic illusion of her - walked straight up to him, turned to the police officer and grinned maniacally, crooking her head to the side in what he thought was a very poor attempt at flirtatious charm. The young officer played along, running his fingers through his hair and putting on an equally unappealing smile.

Feeling oddly helpless, he stood there scowling as he listened to her convoluted story about her "big brother's" mental illness and their dead parents and her working two jobs to buy his expensive medicine, which he had not taken today, thus provoking the violent outburst and the compulsive drinking and could she please just take him home, please?

The few times Rukia had decided to show up in the Living World, she'd managed to make some kind of dramatic entrance, usually involving catching him when he least expected, just for the pleasure of seeing his jaw drop. It didn't feel like it'd been two years since he'd last seen her and four years since their last decent conversation, or like they'd managed to survive a bloody, horrible war or prevented an apocalypse together. It was as if Ichigo were back in high school and she were back to driving him nuts. And that's probably why he was able to roll his eyes - despite his shock at this unexpected appearance - once she started getting all teary-eyed and shaky, as a young woman struggling to defend her mentally unstable sibling surely would.

When he didn't think anyone could be subjected to worse embarrassment than what he was currently suffering, he saw that the cop himself was on the verge of tears, patting her on the back and throwing him compassionate looks.

"T-thank you very much, sir, you're very kind," she said as she took Ichigo's hand and dragged him out of the bar. The naive gentleman was left nodding sympathetically, feeling like a noble lawbreaker, oblivious to the amount of bullshit he'd just swallowed.

She didn't say anything as they walked out, just put on an expression that looked a lot like indifference but which he knew to be a pissed-off kind of disapproval. Just as well; he'd much rather have her furious at him than using all her shoujo manga experience to rescue him from a jail sentence.

He let her take him down a deserted alley, mostly because he was too dizzy to stop her.

Fortunately, his excellent reflexes still enabled him to duck when she abruptly let go of his hand and swung at his face, aiming for his nose.

"You're an _idiot,_" she said, so coolly as to make it seem like she had actually landed the punch. "Did you _want _to get arrested?"

He scowled as hard as he could, though the effort worsened the headache, and didn't answer.

They wrestled for control and he somehow ended up lying flat on his stomach while she sat on his back and twisted one of her arms around both of his, simultaneously pushing against the side of his head so he had one cheek pressed to the ground.

He struggled in vain, trying to figure out how she'd managed to overtake him so easily, and realized that, sometime between the moment they left the bar and just seconds before, when she'd called him an idiot, she had found an opportunity to kick off her gigai.

He should have known Urahara's high-speed ejection models would only cause him as much trouble as every other Urahara invention that had come his way.

"Ugh-Get _off_ me."

Rukia was always going on about the code of honor and respecting your enemies, yet didn't actually play fair herself. Ichigo would have to remember that.

"So that's why Ishida's been handling all the hollows - all of _your _hollows," she said, her voice strained with the effort to keep him immobilized. "Because you've been too drunk to patrol yourself."

"He doesn't mind," he replied, out of breath and starting to get nauseous. It was true, too, that Ishida appreciated the opportunity to show off his efficiency in hollow-slaying and enjoyed even more having Ichigo in his debt. "What are you doing here?"

She ignored him. "Don't think I don't know what your problem is," she said.

Ichigo focused on trying to free himself.

"You've been ignoring your friends."

"I haven't," he denied automatically.

"You're skipping on hollow patrols."

"I'm _busy_."

"You're _depressed_."

"I'm _fine_. Get off of me."

"You fought a war. You couldn't save everyone. It's time you accepted that."

"Get off, Rukia!"

"Or are you still blaming yourself for your father's death?"

Ichigo stopped struggling abruptly.

She sighed. "...You shouldn't."

His arms were finally released, and he felt her weight being lifted off his aching back.

Rukia stepped back and crossed her arms, confident she had his full attention. "It's hardly surprising, though, that a human should grieve over a parent's passing."

Ichigo tried not to wobble as he picked himself off the ground, careful not to look directly at her, but noting her use of the word "human", as if to establish she was above such demeaning behavior.

"I..don't remember ever having parents," she said, and it was probably the only thing she could've said that would make Ichigo look straight at her. "...but I have lost people I cared about, and I know how painful it is."

He could hardly remember Rukia having ever talked about herself, other than the curt answers she gave when he asked persistently enough. Most of the Rukia-related information he had was second-hand, either picked up from conversations he'd overheard or of which he wasn't supposed to come out alive.

"Besides," she said, after an awkward pause had passed, and cleared her throat. "This is the first time in years you've lived in a world that isn't about to end, around people who aren't going to either die if you don't save them or kill you if you don't kill them first. You're _bored._"

"I'm _bored_?," he asked, incredulously, suddenly dropping his plans to ignore her until she went away. "_That_'s what you think my problem is? My family's safe, my friends are safe, my enemies are dead...You think that's _boring _to me? You think I miss Aizen and all that apocalyptic _fun_?"

Rukia remained unfazed, giving him that familiar look that accused him of incurable idiocy. "You know what I meant."

He wondered if there was anything he could say that would make her leave, if there was any way he could go home and pass out on his living room couch and forget she had ever showed up. He knew, though, through the drunken and sleep deprived haze, that if he turned around at that point, he'd eventually come to regret his cowardliness, because there were also things he'd like to say to her-to the whole shinigami world, as a matter of fact.

He'd very much like to start with "fuck you all", but, as unpredictable and infuriating as Rukia was, he knew a good portion of this wasn't her fault, and he did respect her, regardless of how he may feel about her bosses. Or at least he would, soon, when he wasn't so angry and drunk.

"You didn't tell me I'd be kept in the dark like this, no news or anything," he accused, determined not to meet her eye.

It was part of Yamamoto's perverse little game, cutting off his contact with Soul Society. It was actually surprising that they hadn't taken his badge. He'd turned down the captaincy offer and come back to the living world with his sisters, and suddenly the Captain General had forgotten all about his war hero status and that worthless gold medal he kept carefully stored in the back of his closet, underneath a pile of barely folded clothes. Rukia had visited once or twice, barely said two words to him and gone straight back. He knew nothing of how the Hueco Mundo cleanup was doing, whether Renji had taken over the fifth division, how Inoue was doing in the fourth, if Rukia herself had made Vice-Captain. The most he'd been able to get out of her is that they were all alive-his friends, that is. The rest was confidential. Substitute shinigami didn't have access to that kind of information, was what they kept telling him, in the hopes that he'd get so restless at being kept out of the loop that he'd cave and take the offer they'd been pushing at him.

It was an excellent strategy, he had to admit.

"I can understand you must be frustrated," she said, and she did look almost sympathetic. "It's-it's not fair, what the Captain is doing to you, but it's well within his right, considering the circumstances."

Soul Society being shattered, half the officers having died in the war, Hueco Mundo vomiting hollows all over the living world, and the menos infestation and something about a big spiritual imbalance.

They should have worked out a better way to keep Urahara's mouth shut.

"I could've helped, you know. I didn't have to stay here and wonder how many of you were still alive."

"I tried to keep you updated as much as I could."

"Wasn't enough."

"...I see."

Slowly working up the courage to put into words the things that had kept running through his head since they'd last talked, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I've been, uh, reconsidering their offer."

Rukia sighed. This was her least favorite subject. "We've already had this discussion."

"Yeah, well, that's why I'm '_re_considering'."

"I can't see how anything's changed."

He snorted. "That's no surprise, you haven't exactly been around." It was surprisingly hard to conceal the feeling of betrayal from his tone, and he could almost swear he saw her flinch.

"Ah. What I meant was, I don't see how anything _could _have changed. You still have your sisters to take care of, and you're still not finished with your education, as I understand. My superiors may disagree, but I supported your decision before, and I still think it was the right thing to do." She paused and bit her lip thoughtfully. "I would've come sooner if I'd known you were feeling this way."

He made sure his irritation showed. "So you could talk me out of it?"

"Yes," she answered simply, and hesitated another second. "Didn't you have..._plans_, before we met? Taking over your father's business, getting married, joining a rock band-something an ordinary 15-year-old would think about?"

There was a split-second during which he was confused, wondered what the hell she was talking about, but then a light bulb was switched on in his mind and he rolled his eyes at her so dramatically he made himself dizzy again.

"S-stop that," he warned weakly, at the same time as he slapped a hand over his eyes to keep his head from spinning.

"Stop what?"

"That thing you do where you blame yourself for my-my misfortunes or my lost youth, or whatever. I know you think it's noble, but it's just plain dumb. And incredibly annoying, for me."

She audibly gritted her teeth. "That's not what this is about, Ichigo."

"What is this about, then?"

"Trying to stop you from making a bad choice."

"Which is not your responsibility!" he snapped.

Rukia hesitated, and he looked away, scowling.

"What about your friends, your sisters?" she asked, a little more softly.

"They're not children anymore, they're old enough to- didn't you always say I needed to let them take care of themselves? And it's not like I won't check up on them, it's not like I'm leaving them all by themselves. They have their own lives now."

"So you're fine with not living in the same world as your two remaining relatives?"

"Don't do that, Rukia, make me feel all guilty so you can have it your way. How would you like to spend this much time stuck in a gigai, being forced to wait until it dies so you could start living your...your _real _life?"

"You're still human, Ichigo. This _is _your 'real life'."

"I'm not human anymore."

"Don't say - you're intoxicated, you don't know what you're saying. You need to go home -"

"Right. So you can disappear for the next couple of years and hope I'll change my mind?"

"No-"

"It's not like I need your approval, you know. I know I look like that Kaien guy. If this is because you don't want me around, I'll be sure to stay out of your way. We wouldn't be in the same division, right? Just let me make my own decisions. You owe me this."

"This has nothing to do with you _looking _like anyone else." She was flushed with anger now, tip-toeing in a feeble attempt to match his height, her fists closed tight on either side of her body. "This has nothing to do with me. You can have an eternity to be a shinigami, away from your family and friends. But you only get the one human lifetime, and I'm trying to keep you from throwing it away. Do I not have that right, as your friend?"

"Except that you feel responsible for me. Comrades are supposed to be equals, they're supposed make their own decisions."

"And you've never felt responsible for me, then?"

He had already opened his mouth to cry out "No!" when he realized to which particular events she was referring and was forced to reconsider. "There's a difference," he said instead.

She scoffed immediately. "Yeah?"

"There's a difference between being concerned for someone and feeling like you have to take care of them all the time."

"You do know that, then?"

"_You_'re acting like everything that ever went wrong in my life is your fault. Ever since I took your powers you've-"

"You didn't _take _them, I _gave _them to you!"

"I guess that's how you'd justify blaming yourself, then!"

He figured he got to her right then, because she paused, frowning, apparently rethinking her arguments. "I don't regret what I did," she said, as she reached some sort of conclusion in her mind. "Becoming a shinigami was inevitable for you. It was in your blood. It was your destiny."

The shinigami loved this talk of destiny and bloodlines, he thought. "Then we're agreed. Let me take up the position they offered me and fulfill my damn destiny."

Rukia let out an exasperated breath and backed away from him, having been yelling in his face for the last minute. "You're surprisingly eloquent when you're drunk," she said, bitterly, and crossed her arms.

Ichigo could tell, by her stance and silence, that she'd been defeated. "You drink often enough, you gain some resistance," he said, trying not to smile victoriously.

"I'll tell you what," she said suddenly, and turned back to face him. "I'll come back in a week. If you still feel the same way, I'll inform my superiors of your decision."

He tensed, his eyes narrowing as he studied her carefully. "A week?"

Rukia looked him in the eye, making sure not to blink under his stare. "Not a day over seven," she promised.

It brought back the memory of collapsing buildings and dead bodies and explosions all around, the spiritual pressure suffocating even for him as he tried to cling on to his determination to save the world and the people he loved. "We'll both survive this," he'd told her, as though if he said it firmly enough it would come true. Rukia had looked up at him and he'd known her expression matched his exactly. "We will," she'd answered, and they had.

So now he was able to sigh, resigned. "All right."

Rukia looked relieved, relaxing the tension in her shoulders. "Think about it very carefully," she instructed. "Remember what I told you, talk to your sisters."

"I don't think I'll change my mind."

"This is probably the last time you'll have any right to."

Ichigo fought the urge to remind her that he'd taken down creatures much scarier than she, tell her that she could make as many ominous predictions as she liked, and he still wouldn't stop being stubborn. "Fine," he spat, like a child being told to turn off the TV.

She finally looked satisfied. "Good. I'll get going now."

He noticed she touched the hilt of her sword, discreetly, but he already knew what it meant, and, sure enough, his phone-formerly Rukia's -beeped.

"I'll take care of that on my way out," she said, and he felt her reiatsu spike in excitement.

She'd gotten significantly more bloodthirsty since the war, Ichigo noted, probably due to her brother not keeping her off the ranks anymore, and having her long-time ambitions being satisfied. "So did you make vice-captain, or what?" he asked, side-tracked.

She looked taken aback, and then uncomfortable. "You could say that."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She gripped the sword tighter and shifted impatiently. "I have to go after the hollow."

"Tell me fast, then."

She sighed, irritated, realizing he wouldn't let it go easily. "I'm being saved for the 9th division, when it's restored."

"The 9th? But that's-" That was _his _division, they'd told him. The one they wanted him to take over when he "died". "Oh," he said, shocked.

He thought she might have been hoping he didn't know which division he'd be assigned to, because she looked disappointed at his quick conclusion. "I was told I was the first choice, but they have other candidates. The captain gets the last say."

She was keeping her expression carefully blank, which he thought was both frustrating and a little amusing. "You could've told me that earlier," he said, and grinned. "I could have blackmailed you, and we'd have avoided this whole argument."

She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, ready to shunpo away. "I don't have time for this, Ichigo."

"Wait, Rukia," he called, and she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder, annoyed and impatient. "I, uh. I didn't mean what I said, before, you know. That I didn't want you in my division. 'Course the job's yours. You would've been my first pick, too, if they'd asked me."

This was an odd role reversal, he thought, when he saw the surprise on her face and realized he'd been the one to catch her off guard, for once.

The cellphone started beeping again, louder this time, and when he looked up, Rukia had disappeared.

** 


End file.
